


Learning Experience

by SunlightOnTheWater



Series: Pathways [6]
Category: Supernatural, The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Childhood Trauma, Gen, POV Riddick, Past Child Abuse, Past Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-22
Updated: 2014-08-22
Packaged: 2018-02-14 05:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2179314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunlightOnTheWater/pseuds/SunlightOnTheWater
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack, in her quest to learn new fighting techniques, leaves Riddick and Sam alone several days in a row.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning Experience

_"I don't mind kids, but I've never really been good with 'em. Normally they get scared off. Or somethin' big and bad is after my ass and that scares 'em. Jack was different. She thought I was somethin' special and she pulled the kid along for the ride."_

* * *

This was a terrible idea. The last thing Richard B. Riddick needed in his life was to be put in charge of a traumatized thirteen year old six months after he'd taken charge of an angry Necromonger legion. Still, Jack wanted to learn some new fighting techniques which meant she would be leaving them alone. "Don't do anything stupid," she told him before she walked out of the room the first day. "And don't do anything stupid that gets him killed or I'll kill you myself." Then with a smile and a toss of her brown curls she was gone.

The kid was still asleep, peacefully lingering in the world dreams for the moment. Riddick settled in a chair with a thick book that contained yet another history of the army he was seeking to control. He was hoping that he could find some sign of where Furya was. It seemed that Lord Marshall Zhylaw had covered his tracks well, expunging every hint of the planet from any records hi could find. Riddick was hoping that some record of the campaign against Furya had survived despite the Lord Marshall's attempts to make it seem that the planet had never actually existed. He was two hours into yet another tedious record in the year of Lord Marshall fill-in-the-blank when the kid woke up.

He came out, peering cautiously around, and when he saw no sign of Jack he made his way back into his room. He emerged twenty minutes later with a different book, something older than what Riddick was holding and written in a language he didn't speak, and settled on the floor with it in his lap. That was how they spent most the day, Riddick tossing one chronicle to the side in disgust and moving on to another one. Sam seemed to be taking notes on his text, frowning at whatever he was reading and wincing as if it were physically hurting him. By the time Jack came back, sweaty and satisfied and full of chatter, they had only moved to eat.

The next day went much the same and Riddick began to think that everything would go smoothly while Jack was busy with her training. That was when, predictably, everything began to go wrong. It started with the headaches. He noticed Sam wincing and rubbing his temples. The kid started flinching at loud noises in the hall and looked as if he were about to jump out of his skin when Riddick tossed another record aside. Then he shoved the book aside as if it injured him, whimpering softly. His hands went to his head and Riddick got the feeling that everything was going very, very wrong.

It took less than a minute for the first scream to break free. Suddenly the kid was curled up in a tight ball sobbing in fear. The con was suddenly very much out of his depth. He slid his way smoothly out of the chair and knelt within arm's reach of the kid, unsure how to proceed. The sobs turned to gasps and little cries of pain. Whatever was going on, it was escalating. The kid turned his fingernails on his own skin and Riddick knew he needed to do something or face Jack's wrath.

Cautiously he reached out and cupped the kid's chin in his palm, raising his head so he was looking directly at the convict. The kid's eyes were wild and unfocused, his breath coming in the sharp little pants of someone in pain. "Look at me," he ordered, voice a sharp rumble. The kid trembled but his eyes were still completely lost to panic. "Look at me," he snapped again. Slowly he watched as the kid began to focus. "You here?" he demanded once most the panic had faded away.

"Yeah," the kid replied, his voice barely more than a whisper. When Jack returned they were back to reading again as if nothing had ever happened but it was the first son the con had been given that everything was not going to go as smoothly as he would have hoped.

* * *

_"Jackie girl was at least safe for me to be around. She was unbreakable, in her own odd way. The kid was different. He'd break if the temperature was wrong. Left alone with him, eventually he'd end up dead. I had no doubt about that. It was only a matter of how soon."_

* * *

The third day Sam didn't emerge until long after noon. His face was as pale as milk and covered with a sheen of sweat. He trembled slightly as he settled in the usual spot with his book. Riddick found himself spending more time watching the kid than he was reading through yet another record that would probably tell him nothing about the campaign of the Necromongers against Furya. As soon as he started wincing and rubbing his temples again Riddick was crossing the floor to crouch in front of him. "Book away," he ordered and Sam stared at him wide, confused eyes. "You're gonna trigger another flashback."

"I have to do this," Sam protested. Riddick gave him a dark look and he flinched, quickly shoving the book away.

"Good boy," he said and returned to his own useless bit of information. By the time Jack had returned, Sam was back to his book but he wasn't wincing in pain so the con left him be.

"Do you boys do anything else while I'm gone?" she asked, covered in sweat and cheeks flushed.

"Plan world domination," Riddick replied dryly and Jack giggled. Her laugh brought a slim, tired smile to the kid's face and she studied him with concern.

"Are you okay?" she asked him, kneeling next to him and pressed the back of her hand to his forehead. "Your head is warm. Are you sick?"

"I'm okay," he mumbled softly. Jack obviously wasn't convinced but Sam turned back to his book and, with a reluctant sigh, she gave up.

The next morning the kid was up earlier than before but he looked worse. Any color he had retained the day before was gone and he was shivering violently despite the blanket wrapped tight around his shoulders. He'd left his book in his room and he huddled up on the couch he and Jack normally flopped across in the evenings. Jack had two more days of training after this one and Riddick wasn't sure the kid was going to make it through them.

He started in on the last book of records, determined to finish with them and move on to a different track of research. It was the oldest book by far, the cover cracked and the pages yellowed and crackling when he turned a page. The kid twitched every time the paper crackled. At first Riddick didn't notice it. Then the kid's breathing accelerated, little whimpers slipping free. Riddick glanced up from his record, this one had information that had been left out of the previous records, and saw the tears streaking down the kid's face. His eyes were distant and it looked like he wasn't truly seeing his surroundings. " _Kid_ ," he said, his voice a low warning, but the kid didn't respond.

Riddick stood, carefully putting down the record book, and softly crossed the room. The little whimpers continued, his chest heaving as if he were struggling to breathe. "Hey kid," he murmured, trying to catch Sam's attention. No response. "Kid?" Still nothing. Whatever nightmare he was living, it must seem far more real than the world around him. The con reached out and touched the kid's arm. That was when all hell broke loose.

"Don't touch me," the kid screamed, going almost backwards over the back of the couch to get away. " _Please_. Just leave me alone. I just want to be left alone." He was sobbing at the end, whole body shaking and arms raised to shield his head from a coming blow. Riddick froze for a moment, struck dumb by the sudden terror he could _smell_.

"You're not there," he said at last, voice rough. "You understand me kid?" That got him a hitching sob, the still too small body hunching in on itself further. He sighed then and settled down heavily on the couch, silently cursing Jack for leaving them alone together.

"I don't know what you want from me," came the soft whimper after a moment of silence.

"I want you to remember where you're at kid," he grumbled. "That's all."

"I won't-" the kid stopped and Riddick heard the sound of him swallowing hard. "I'm not playing this game."

"What game?" the con snapped, irritated. "The one that's gonna get Jackie girl killed when you loose your marbles in the middle of a fight?"

"Who?" Riddick turned his head and saw that the kid had uncoiled enough to actually look at him.

"Jack," he said, his voice sharp. "You know, the girl that insisted you come along when I wanted to leave you."

"Kyra?" Slowly clarity was returning to those frightened hazel eyes as they focused on the con.

"Yeah," he growled, irritation only growing with each minute. He wouldn't admit it to anyone who asked but it was to hide the fear and pity coiled in his chest. That reaction hadn't been anything short of that of someone who had been tortured. He'd seen it before in a couple of nastier slams where bored guards took out their irritations on some of the more fragile inmates whose minds would break quickly under the pressure. He'd seen the aftermath of it on stronger men too and it wasn't pretty.

Sam sucked in a deep breath and buried his head in his arms with a choked sob. Riddick could see his ribs where his loose shirt was pressed against the skin of chest. The kid hadn't been eating enough, despite Jack's pressing, and it showed. Of course, judging by the frequency of the flashbacks brought on by various foods, it wasn't any easy task to get him to eat. "You with me?" he asked gruffly. Sam's head nodded but he was sobbing quietly, shoulders heaving. Jack would be back in an hour and if she returned to see Sam in such a state she'd drop her lessons. Riddick needed her to finish those lessons. It kept an open, amicable relationship between the Necros she was learning from and his own family, made them safer. Made Jack safer. He sighed and pulled himself up, slipping around the couch to kneel next to the kid. "Whatever you think happened, whatever you saw, wasn't here," he told the kid.

"You think I don't know that?" came the anguished reply. "It doesn't make any difference; it's still real to me."

"You gotta find an anchor," he told the kid. "Somethin' to hold you there. Until then, it's just gonna get worse." The sobs were calming slowly, the kid steadying himself finally.

"It's never going to get better," came the hollow answer. Then Sam retreated to his room. He didn't emerge for the rest of the day, not even when Jack returned from her lesson. The next evening when Jack questioned him about it he claimed exhaustion and Riddick, who found himself learning an awful lot about about the kid, didn't protest the story. Maybe Jackie girl would eventually learn the truth but until that time arrived he'd let the kid keep what semi-balance of control he had left.

* * *

_"Weren't a lotta traumatized kids that wanted anything to do with me. I'd found that I scared 'em long ago and hadn't really bothered learnin' the skill. After all, there'd been other Rangers to deal with 'em. And there were, up until the point where there weren't anymore. Seems to me that I shoulda learned some of those skills. They woulda come in handy about now."_


End file.
